German Police See Possible Lebanon Link to Failed Train Bombs

By CARTER DOUGHERTY

Published: August 19, 2006

German investigators said Friday that bombs found on two trains last month might have been planted by two young men angered by the war in Lebanon.

The bombs were discovered in two abandoned suitcases on July 31 by train conductors in regional commuter trains in the northwestern cities of Koblenz and Dortmund.

The ignition mechanisms were activated, but the bombs failed to explode. If they had, officials said, they could have destroyed several train cars and derailed the trains, with an untold number of casualties.

The police, citing surveillance videos from the station in Cologne where the young men had boarded, described them as men in their 20's with a ''southern appearance.''

The bombs had been programmed to explode at 2:30 p.m., before the trains reached their destinations, the towns of M?engladbach and Hamm.

The German police are hypothesizing that the suspects were angry about the Israel-Lebanon war, in part because of evidence that included a bag of Lebanese cooking starch and a Lebanese telephone number.

''It is imaginable that the culprits wanted to send a signal about the conflict in the Near East and were willing to risk massive destruction and possible human casualties,'' said J?Zierke, the president of the Federal Criminal Office, Germany's national investigative arm.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sch?le said that the authorities, stepping up the policing of trains and stations, might approach travelers and examine luggage.

Surveillance video from the Cologne station shows the figures clearly but leaves their facial features grainy. But since the bombs failed to detonate, authorities were left with a bounty of evidence, including DNA.

The telephone number was found on a piece of paper with Arabic writing -- apparently a shopping list -- that was tucked inside clothing used to pad the metal gas canisters inside one suitcase. Mr. Zierke said a store sold the starch primarily to Lebanese families around Essen.

Emergency Landing by Jet in Italy

ROME, Aug. 18 (AP) -- A British plane made an emergency landing in southern Italy on Friday after the captain reported a bomb threat, but a search turned up no explosives.

Excel Airways, which operated the plane said a passenger had found a note on an airsickness bag that read, ''There's a bomb on this aircraft.''